Arrow- The Hunting Party
by MattSpy05
Summary: A mixture of point of point of views and drabbles from DC and CW's Arrow using Linkin Park's new album "The Hunting Party". Going to rate this M mostly for language and for freedom to do what I want.
1. Keys to the Kingdom

_So I did this once before as a writing project using the Metallica Black Album to create a screenplay. So I thought I would try it with Arrow and my favorite band since I was in High School Linkin Park, especially since their new album is called "Hunting Part" I thought the Arrow theme just fit._

_Rules:_

_**I must go in order of the album and I must use every track on the album even if it isn't a song.**_

_**I don't have to extract lyrics I can basically go with the themes if I want.**_

_**Story does not have to follow cannon but I will probably go in and out of that.**_

**Of course: I own none of the Arrow characters that I'm going to use.**

_The first song on the track is called, "Keys to the Kingdom", it's a song filled with angst as much of Linkin Park's material is that way. The lyric that I used for this theme is "I'm my own casualty, I fuck up everything I see fighting with futility." This fits perfectly into Oliver's self-guilt. Then I thought, what's the Kingdom, and I thought his only place that he feels in control of everything is Lian Yu, whether he wants to believe it or not Lian Yu is Oliver's Kingdom it is his domain, so putting the self-guilt and Lian Yu together I thought that this could be about Oliver's return to Lian Yu after the Undertaking._

The boat takes me to as close to the shore line as it is comfortable with, Lian Yu has a death grip on anyone that gets near its shores, so I don't blame the fisherman when they make me board the dingy for the last half-mile of the journey. Unlike my previous trip this time I came prepared. Along with my chest, I also have brought duffels of clothes, toiletries, and enough food and water to last me until I'm situated. I've also brought a GPS location device, I don't plan on staying in purgatory forever, just long enough to atone for my sins.

Five hundred and three of them to be exact, five hundred and three people had to die because I failed, _I failed my city_. My father sent me on a quest to right his wrongs, and I was too stupid, too foolish not to see the real wrongs he was talking about. The list, my quest, was all for nothing, I failed my father, I failed him because I didn't see past the names in the book, I just saw the names and did what this island taught me to do, to kill, to scare, to punish. Instead I needed to see beyond the list, my father wanted me to see _why_ those names were on that list, and why they needed special ink to keep their names invisible, because they were planning for the deaths of thousands, I never saw this, until it was too late, so five hundred and three people had to die because of my mistake. In order to cleanse myself, to do my best at ridding myself of this guilt, I must punish myself. Not with some extraneous workout until I forget, but with solitude to the only place that would truly punish me for my failure.

I row the final half mile until I finally reach the rocky shoreline of Lian Yu. Immediately my self-awareness returns, my vision expands, my hearing becomes more sensitive, my brain that was in Starling City is trying to tell me that this island is no longer inhabited, that Lian Yu is now a well-known place on the Chinese map because a billionaire playboy survived there for five years. Though my brain that works on this island knows that you take nothing for granted, so my first job is to scope the island before making camp, I pull my things off the dingy and then pull the dingy to shore and flip the dingy over my things using it as a canopy for the unpredictable rains, afterwards the wood could be useful after it dries.

I open my chest and pull out my bow and quiver, along a few herbs just in case I don't identify what's around me fast enough. I finally sling a canteen, and small pack of food around my neck before making my way off the beach and into the forest. My brain easily adjusts to life back on the island and as if I never left I remember all the routes to get to the highest places, I remember to avoid the valleys before the hills because that's where most of the mines are located. I also make sure to leave the southwest corner for last remembering that the wild boars like to rummage in that area. It takes three days to encircle the Island and luckily for me no one is here. On this encircling of the island I visit Edward Fyers' camp, the cave where Yao Fei taught me about survival, how to kill, and then finally to the fuselage where I spent much of my time learning to fight and how to use my bow. After examining the fusel lodge I decide that it is still suitable enough for me as living quarters.

With hunger starting to ravage I make my his last stop to the southwest corner to shoot a boar through the eyes. I drag the boar to the dingy and flip the boar, along with my supplies into the dingy. After attaching a rope to the dingy, I begin to drag the heavily weighted dingy to the hangar. It was nightfall by the time I reach the hangar, the dead boar starts to attract flies, and I fear that it could attract other predators who smell the blood as well, I understand that if I don't start preparing this boar fast enough I may become the meal along with it. I pull out my combat knife and begin to carve around the skin of the animal pulling the skin from the carcass as quickly as possible, I can feel the flies attempting to burrow in my ear and I hope that they aren't laying eggs because I really don't feel like spending the next week pulling maggots out of my ears. After removing the skin I carve another inch off the entire boar and drop it a few hundred feet away from the hangar. Not only would this keep the flies away, but the predators as well. I drip some of the pig fat onto some moss and use it as fuel to start a fire. Within minutes I remember how to make a strong enough spit and start to roast the boar over the flames. Knowing that my hunger isn't going to wait for me to fully cook this boar, I carve the cooked outer meat with my combat knife and slip the piece into my mouth and then follow that with a swig of water.

I then pull out my wallet, the last time I was on this island a small photograph of Laurel is what motivated me to stay alive, yes my father's quest provided my purpose, but that picture, that chance to seek forgiveness was what motivated me when signs were telling me that death was a more pleasant experience than survival. This time the photograph is of Tommy. My best friend, the one that I betrayed the most, his out of all the five hundred and three, his death consumes me with the most guilt. I should have been there to save Laurel, it was me that should have had that rebar poking out through my chest, it should have been me asking Tommy for forgiveness as life began to fade. Instead it was Tommy who had to suffer, and it was all my fault, because I couldn't figure out the Undertaking quick enough.

What hurts most of all is that Tommy died not seeing the true purpose of what I was doing, instead he only saw the body count. He saw me as a liar, a cheat, and worst of all, a murderer, and while he died he only spoke to me while he was dying out of pity. Tommy is my real reason for my penance, for I didn't know all the five hundred and three people who died in the Glades that night, but I did know my best friend, and the five hundred and three days I will spend on this island will be for him, it is the only thing I could think to do that would be worthy of Tommy's forgiveness.

Oh I realize that Thea would think that I am abandoning her while our mother is in prison awaiting trial. That Digg will think that I left because I couldn't handle to pain of staying there, and I know that Felicity, the woman that has the purest soul, the woman that was nearly crushed underneath the foundation of my club because of my failure, will probably spend every free moment tracking me down. I realize that it's unfair to them for me to just leave without warning, but I need this, I need this pain, I need to feel the loneliness, the hopelessness again, I need to punish myself for my failure, and remaining in Starling City wouldn't provide the pain that I need to repent for my sins.

Once full, I lift the boar off the spit and deposit it for the flies a mile away from the camp. As I renters my old now new again home, I feel one with the Island, like the Island misses my presence, I makes four tally marks on a non-vine-covered portion of the fuselage to signify my fourth full day of my refuge on Lian Yu, but somehow my guilt doesn't feel four souls less.


	2. All for Nothing

_Thank you everyone who checked out my first story "Keys to the Kingdom" this is and my Mortal Kombat piece are my first dips into the fan fiction pool so I appreciate the support. There is no better feeling as a writer to put a lot of work into a piece and have that worked get noticed and recognized. _

_**So once again here are the rules:**_

_**I must go in order of the album and I must use every track on the album even if it isn't a song.**_

_**I don't have to extract lyrics I can basically go with the themes if I want.**_

_**Story does not have to follow cannon but I will probably go in and out of that.**_

_So the second track on "The Hunting Party" is named __**All for Nothing**__. Immediately upon seeing this title I thought about how everyone felt after the Undertaking, that their work to save the city was all for nothing because Malcom Merlyn installed a second device, but as I listened to the song it wasn't a song about guilt or anger, it was more about defiance and risk. Plus the music didn't sound depressing enough to have it be a guilt fest like "Keys to the Kingdom". There's a lyric from Mike Shinoda that hit me that says, "I want to skate and play it safe but this is take a shot time." Then the chorus is from Page Hamilton, "If I do what you demand, you'll make me understand, you're gonna hold me to your word, __**And if I sell myself away, I'll have no debt to pay, I'm gonna get what I deserve**__."___

_After listening to it a few times that line in the chorus hit me, "Keys to the Kingdom" was about guilt and in the piece Oliver went back to Lian Yu not to run away from his problems but as a way to repay his debt for his failure to the 503 people who died in The Undertaking. At the end of that piece he realizes that it's not going to work. This is why Oliver decided to leave when Felicity and Digg find him, because he needs to find a new method of repaying his debt. _

_Then the selling himself, at the end of season 2 Oliver was going to offer himself to Slade as a sacrifice to save his city, then Felicity convinces him otherwise not to. So this song starts to fit along into Oliver's plans into defeating Slade. At first he plans to sacrifice himself but he realizes that it's "All for Nothing" so they take a shot with the "They took the wrong woman" scene and that leads to the final confrontation between Oliver and Slade after Felicity injects him with the cure. The part that they don't necessarily play enough is the final fight between Slade and Oliver, they go back and forth between the two fight scenes five years apart (which was pretty cool by the way) so this piece is going to start off right after Slade is injected with the Mirakuru._

**All for Nothing**

_Holy shit that worked…_Oliver's mind blows while trying to remain as stoic as possible. Felicity had convinced him to make Slade outthink himself. He knew about the bugs in the house and the plan worked, Slade was watching him as he pretended to spill his love to Felicity before handing her the Mirakuru cure. The truth was he doesn't have time for love right now, in a short amount of time Waller was going to blow Starling City to its foundations if he didn't figure out a way to stop Slade. The love is for his city, his love is for Tommy and the debt he has to pay. Although he can't help but think that the words "I love you" came out a little easier than he thought.

He can worry about Felicity's or Laurel's or whoever's feelings later because their minds will be splattered all over Starling City and they won't have any feelings if he doesn't end Slade's tirade. With Slade's power gone and him writhing on the floor as the cure consumes his body he nocks an arrow and delivers a cure laced arrow to the chest of the perpetrator holding onto Laurel. With Laurel and Felicity free he guides them out of the warehouse and into Digg's car.

"I have to finish this!" Oliver yells out to Digg.

"No! You've won! Let's leave, he can't hurt you anymore!" Laurel yells out.

Felicity and Digg know better, that Oliver needs this, his conscience needs this, and that letting Slade go free now, after everything he has done: getting Rochev to steal his company, killing his mother, and all the things he did to terrorize him while he was on Lian Yu as well as the fear he conceived in him when he returned. If he lets Slade go lets him ponder in his defeat he will simply return and seek revenge and his victory and his unthinkable act of almost having Felicity throat slit in front of him will be all for nothing. Digg simply nods, Felicity stares into his eyes, tears coming from them Oliver knows what she's thinking because she's an open book.

"It's what I have to do Felicity." Oliver calms her, knowing that it's not going to work.

"Don't sacrifice yourself for him, you're better than he is, getting yourself killed will do no good for this city, it still needs you." Felicity whimpers, he knows that when Felicity means "this city" she means her, that she still needs him, so that she can feel safe.

Oliver quietly nods and shuts the door, the car speeds off and for a moment he lets off an amused sigh, both Laurel and Felicity concerned for his safety, he understands what a disgusting web he'll have to weave to sort that situation out, but now is not the time. He knows Waller has an itchy trigger finger and without Slade contained Waller will get her wish.

Oliver counts his Arrows, he has eleven left, since he reloaded before approaching Slade, none of them explosive since he used all of them to rescue Laurel. He has two web cast arrows, he still has four cure arrows left, those would kill Slade now and he will not, in this moment, a character defining moment, break his oath to Tommy, no one is in danger but him, there is no choice this time. That leaves him with four sharp point arrows and one escape arrow with an extended rope. While Slade has two endless sharp points with his massive machetes, he once again knows that he's going to have to fight smarter and not harder to beat Slade. Slade is the one who taught him how to do most of his fighting. He had a year of training in Hong Kong on his mission with Waller but nothing significant enough for him to defeat Slade with. As he begins to climb the steps to the top of the warehouse, his senses begin to expand again, for this moment he is back on Lian Yu, he is back in a domain that he unfortunately feels comfortable in, fearing for his life. He begins to hear the sound much like a cage rattling and he knows that it must be Slade baiting him to come at him and challenge him. As he ascends he starts to analyze the situation, the Oliver from last year Pre-Undertaking would have challenged him wits for wits. Mano e mano in battle to the death, if he kills him, so be it, but Felicity is right, to do that meant certain death, even though Oliver is highly trained, the man that trained him is awaiting for him on the top of the warehouse.

He starts to remember something what Malcom Merlyn told him, _You can't beat me, and you never will, because you don't know what you're fighting for._ He now knows what he is fighting for, he's fighting to save Starling City from being a crater, he's fighting for Felicity, Laurel, Sarah, Roy, and the others that stand by him, he fights for Tommy, and he fights to repent his sins to the five-hundred and three innocent lives lost in the Undertaking, his time on Lian Yu did not repay the debt like he thought, he realizes now that more will die if he is not successful, and giving himself a chance to be successful to save thousands or millions of people from death is how he repays the debt. Like Felicity says, sacrificing himself won't do any good, to repay his debt he must find another way.

He realizes now that this is not a battle of who's the strongest with Slade, Slade is without a doubt stronger than him, this is a hunt, a trapping to be exact, he just needs to trap him, to contain him long enough to secure him and call off Waller. He knows that Slade will have to remember how to fight without Mirakuru, that only having one eye will now be a disadvantage, that there will still be lingering pain left over from Felicity's needle to his throat, his shoulder will be sore from brunting that pain. For once Slade has weaknesses; to win he must exploit them.

Oliver makes it to the roof of the warehouse, there Slade waits for him, his Deathstroke mask not adorning his face. Oliver leaves his hood on, for some reason he feels stronger, more capable with the hood over his face.

"Nice work kid, you broke that woman's heart just to get to me, I'm flattered."

Oliver sees what Slade is doing, he thinks he can get to him by using his guilt against him, but he knows that Felicity will stand behind him, he can mend that fence later.

"You think you've defeated me, but I don't need Mirakuru to defeat you, I know all your moves, my resolve is stronger than ever, it feels good to know that the Mirakuru didn't fuel my vengeance, that you still fuel my vengeance and killing you and making you suffer without the Mirakuru will give me much…more….pleasure!"

Slade reaches behind his back and unsheathes his machetes, Oliver can't help but unleash a devious smile when Slade right hand starts to wobble from his shoulder having to indeed bear the brunt of Felicity's stab wound and the weight of the massive machete. Oliver pulls out his bow but does not nock an arrow, he must be smart about his arrow usage, even though he is weakened his reflexes are still fast enough to dodge his arrows.

"Please don't say you came up here to sacrifice yourself to save your women, because if you allow me to kill you I will find them and I will slaughter them mercilessly."

Oliver still chooses not to move, he will not give in to Slade's games. He continues to wait in hope of irritating Slade to charge at him, but Slade is also smarter than that. He knows that time is not on his side and he needs Slade to approach him, then an idea comes to him, he nocks a cure arrow, he then purposely aims it to fire over Slade's right shoulder, this causes Slade to instantly move to his left, this gives Oliver the chance he needs to move to Slade's right.

Slade sees that Oliver has moved closer to the edge of the warehouse and he starts to stalk his prey trying to corner him against the edge of the warehouse and him, Oliver again moves to Slade's right, Slade swings his right blade but it's not with the same speed and force as it used to be and this allows Oliver to duck out of the way and then swing his leg behind Slade's right knee, Slade's lumberjack like legs keep him steady enough to not fall over but the slight stumble allows Oliver to get behind Slade. Slade rotates around to his right, but it takes too long to get Oliver in sight and by the time he rotates around Oliver's bow collides with his face. Oliver's instinct tell him to try to get another shot on Slade, but Oliver can't risk getting a machete through his chest so he backs away and does his best to keep himself on Slade's right side.

Slade reads Oliver's movements and realizes that he is trying to stay on his patched eye, he moves further to his left to get Oliver on his right side, Oliver as predictably as he can moves in that direction, Slade then delivers a boot to Oliver's chest causing Oliver to do a backhand-spring and fall on his stomach. Slades stalks his prey, flipping the machete in his right hand so that it now points in a downward direction, he attempts to stab Oliver in his shoulder blade with the point of his machete but Oliver rolls out of the way and the machete collides with the concrete instead, the jolt in his right shoulder causes a stinging sensation and Slade unconsciously winces at the pain. Pain is something he hasn't had to live with in a long time and as much as he wants to believe that he did suffer while on the Mirakuru he can now see that he wasn't _physically _suffering. Oliver rolls into a kneeling position and sees an opportunity to use one of his sharpened arrows, he quickly nocks it and fires it into Slade's shoulder joint, Slade is too concentrated on the new sensation of pain to realize this and the sharpened point collides with his Kevlar, it doesn't penetrate the skin but the force of the arrow intensifies the pain in his shoulder and knocks him backwards. Slade snaps the arrow's shaft off with his machete and turns to face Oliver again, but he can't spot him fast enough because Oliver has gone to his right side again. Realizing that's where he probably is he swings his left machete, his stronger hand at this point toward his right side. Oliver is surprisingly close and the blade cuts through Oliver's midsection.

Oliver cries out in pain and bites his bottom lip to channel the pain away, but Slade kicks him in the ribs before he has a chance, Oliver knowing that Slade will go for the kill, rips a throw arrow out of his chest and implants it directly in Slade's sore shoulder. This causes Slade to wince again, _gotcha,_ Oliver torques then untorques himself swinging the point of his bow directly into Slade's shoulder joint. As Slade cries out in pain, Oliver jumps and spins landing his foot into Slade's chest knocking him backwards. He then fires another sharp point arrow at Slade's shoulder, Slade goes to knock the arrow out of his path, _trap the beast_, and while he's busy concentrating on the arrow he fires a web cast arrow at Slade's feet, he then fires a second webcast arrow into Slade's upper body trapping Slade against a concrete pole. Slade goes to maneuver out of the casting and Oliver nocks another sharp point arrow.

"You even attempt to escape and I'll put an arrow through your other eye."

Slade can do nothing but smile, "Well done kid."

_So a couple of interpretations here, first of all I think Slade having to deal with the concept of pain for the first time in five years is something that would definitely be a disadvantage to him especially when fighting with Oliver and his impeccable ability to tolerate pain. Second, I'm more of an Olicity fan than a Lolliver fan but the idea that Laurel would be catty and bitchy like a lot of the fan fiction interpretations I've read doesn't really make sense. Laurel and Oliver have been through a lot and I think when her father didn't want to know who he was and that he would rather stay in jail than know who he was made Laurel finally realize that Oliver is doing some good, and I think as we saw in the last few episodes that she would realize that she still cares for him. Now love him, I think the two of them will experiment with that in the third season. I'm also don't believe that Oliver has to be with Laurel because the comics say they end up together, as we learned from Smallville, CW does not care about fulfilling the comic storyline it is an individual entity a television show that doesn't really set its target audience on the "comic book" demographic, so Felicity is still game. There is too big a following for Felicity in terms of fandom to kill her off, the interesting concept is if she becomes the Oracle and gets her own show to form the birds of Prey, and would they paralyze her to do that, that's the question that needs to be asked._


	3. Guilty All the Same

_Thanks to all the people who have checked out my work so far and special thanks to __**Chlolicity**__ for following the story. If anyone has also checked out my Mortal Kombat piece, than double thanks to you as well. _

_**Once again here are the rules:**_

_**I must go in order of the album and I must use every track on the album even if it isn't a song.**_

_**I don't have to extract lyrics I can basically go with the themes if I want.**_

_**Story does not have to follow cannon but I will probably go in and out of that.**_

_So the third track on "The Hunting Party" is a feature song on the track called "Guilty All the Same". I was worried about this piece because I have heard the song before and I was having trouble fitting it into Arrow. Of course "Guilty" automatically can attain to Oliver but I've already done that with "Keys to the Kingdom" I thought I could go the Moira Queen route, but I'm trying to write scenes that weren't directly in the show, and the only scene that I could think of doing with her is right after Oliver tells her off, but there is already so much good stuff from other writers about that already. So my next crazy idea was to have Moira at her final judgment trying to atone for her sins on Earth, but that was just too wacky. (Although if people like the idea I can do it as a one-shot perhaps)._

_So then I thought, "Hey AU time!" Then with season 3 filming soon I thought, "Let's do something that would resemble season 3, and as I searched through some villains to use, there was one that dawned on me. It was like the skies opening up. This villain and the song match perfectly, and the sequencing using the song all just fit, as if the song told the story for me. I'm not going to say who the villain is, perhaps you all can guess by leaving a review!_

**Guilty All the Same**

All of a sudden everything iss bright, and loud, those that didn't see the explosive fly through the window start wandering the room like blind zombies, others could feel the blood on their hands and start to panic, he looks over to find Felicity his "and one" for the evening, it was forwarded by Oliver and his PR team at Queen Consolidated that he brought his once again Executive Assistant along to show that this event was not only helpful to those that have suffered in the Glades after The Undertaking and for those that suffered through the riots of Slade's Army, but that this was also a business venture, that Queen Consolidated would focus more of their attention on technologies that could improve quality of life for those that can't afford that luxury. This is a big step in an alternative direction for Queen Consolidated, it is capitalistic philanthropy, and that new philosophy that Oliver Queen sought for the company that is now his again rightfully started with this night.

Tonight for a considerable donation to various charities in Starling City to help the recovery efforts, independent companies and entrepreneurs could present their products and ideas directly to the board of trustees at Queen Conslidated and its investors, if the idea had potential than Queen Consolidated would fund research and development of the idea and apply these developments into the rebuilding of Starling City and others cities that demanded the product.

He should have known that it would be too good to be true and to no avail the first positive image of Queen Consolidated in more than two years ends in violence and disaster like it always does. Felicity who cannot hear or see anything due to the explosion also starts to panic because she can feel blood in her hands as well, Oliver and Digg who noticed the explosion both were able to cover their ears and close their eyes in time, Oliver tries to go over and comfort Felicity, to tell her that it's just a ruptured eardrum but before long more explosive devices enter the room, and more bright white explosions occur, Oliver tries his best to muff out the sounds with his shoulders while covering Felicity's ears. Her screams can be heard over the blast and once they finally calm down, Oliver turns to Digg and without even a sound Digg runs over to care to Felicity while the rest of the security go to gather up the guests and escort them to safety.

As everything starts to quiet down and the bright flashes start to dissipate Oliver gives another look to Digg, and Digg once again already knows the answer, "Everything is in the trunk."

"Then let's get Felicity out of here and then we can worry about that."

The trio starts to make their way out of the room, until men in black armor begin crashing through the windows, "Let's go we don't have much time!" Oliver lifts Felicity and carries her across the ballroom, Oliver can hear gunfire behind him and the screams of others as panic begins to ensue in the room. Oliver can't think of anything but getting Felicity to safety at that point, they reach the door just in time before the last of the assailants enters the room and secures the perimeter. As Oliver is able to scamper away he feels odd that he hasn't been captured directly and then he remembers that he, according to the public still has no real worth as of yet although he is being paid a hefty salary for once again being the CEO of Queen Consolidated. Many magazines joked about him being able to handle going from "billionaire to millionaire" however those outlets didn't know that Felicity with the help of A.R.G.U.S , were able to secretly return a lot of the money back once Rochev was killed and Slade was taken back to Lian Yu, the funds now exist in a hidden offshore account to be used for Arrow purposes.

They make it to Diggle's car just as the Police begin to arrive and surround the hotel. Diggle lays Felicity in the backseat as Oliver opens the trunk, he grabs his quiver, bow, suit, mask, and hood. Without saying a word he dashes back through the parking garage and to the stairs, he knows that there are cameras around but he will get A.R.G.U.S or Felicity to alter the images later. As he slips on the green mask and pulls up the hood he feels the all too familiar darkness beginning to consume him again, he feels a small ounce of regret every time he has to don his outfit now, for there are times when he wishes that he no longer has to use "The Hood" to save the city, he wants Oliver Queen and Queen Consolidated to fix the city, he wants this city to get to the part where the city starts saving itself and that it doesn't have to rely on him like a crutch.

He calls in to Waller knowing that Felicity will be out of commission on this task; with a promise of a future favor later, she gives him the layout of the building and finds him an area where he can gain access to the ballroom without alerting the guards. As he approaches the area, from the ceiling he sees a figure standing in the center of the room, like the others he also is adorned in black armor, but this figure also wears a hood, immediately he envisions the Dark Archer, but Merlyn is dead, and he wouldn't try to hurt the elite of the city, those were his allies in The Undertaking, and when the Dark Hood speaks he notices an almost "adolescent" tone behind the monotone over voice.

"I don't understand you rich filth, there are people in this world, this city in fact that die every night because they don't have the money to support themselves, so they result to murder, drugs, prostitution, or worse to survive. While all of you have to be invited to dress up in your fancy suits and your gowns that cost more than people's homes, and your pathetic jewelry, ah let's start with the jewelry shall we? My team will now extract all watches, earrings, jewels, anything of value if you don't comply, you will be killed." As the armored men hold out the bags, those that didn't have their eardrums blown out instruct everyone else to remove their jewelry. "Do you really need the extravagance to help others? Do you? Are you that filled with greed that you need to be bribed to help? Our world would be a better place if filth like you didn't need be tipsy with champagne to pull out your pocketbooks," the dark hood laughs, "Pocket books next shall we?"

The man begins to stalk to crowd, "I see that Queen is no longer here, he bolted, he's good at that, he really doesn't want to help the city he just wants to look good while he tries to regain his millions so he can fuck women every night of the week and drive fancy cars! You think you're doing good? You're just as guilty as Meryln and Wilson, they just had the balls to admit what they were doing, you are all just cowards, and I'm going to show you the light by seeing what it's like to lose everything. Before you all leave tonight all your bank accounts will be emptied, as long as no one tries anything stupid you all can leave with your lives intact, but for now you all will sit and wait while my machine takes all of your money, but don't worry it's going to help the people of Starling, Gotham, Central, Metropolis, third world countries, and anyone else who needs the help, you had your time to do the right thing and you failed, so now I'm going to make sure I do it for you."

As the remaining assailants are busy collecting items Oliver finds that it's a good time to make his appearance. He fires a rope arrow into the ceiling and swings down to the floor, the guards stop and pull out their weapons but the dark hood holds out his hand, "Continue gentlemen, we knew that we would be receiving and extra guest tonight." The Dark hood lifts his head and Oliver is shocked to see a white "Mike Myers" like mask that covers his entire face, on the left breast of his outfit he notices some red lettering but he can't determine what it says from the distance he is at.

Oliver charges the hood and much like the Dark Archer his size is formidable and he realizes that underneath the baggy hood must be some sort of armor because when he goes to elbow the man in the ribs he nearly breaks his forearm in the process, the dark hood goes to spin kick Oliver but he ducks out of the way, Oliver counters the move by taking out the Dark Hood's legs but the figure doesn't stay down for long as he uses his shoulder blades to launch himself up in the air and back to his feet. This time the man throws an explosive at Oliver but Oliver pins it to the wall using his arrow and the device simply blows a hole in the wall.

The Dark Hood laughs, "Why are you fighting for them, these filth were the ones in charge of The Undertaking, they were the ones that caused your biggest failure. All that blood on your hands, all that guilt you feel, it's their fault, but if you fight for them, you bear that same responsibility, and you are as big a failure as them."

Oliver tries his best to fight the Dark Hood's manipulation, "Not everyone that has money planned The Undertaking, not everyone that doesn't have money wants to stop selling drugs, we must give people a chance to do the right thing, by taking their money you can only provide funds, but no future, giving away money can only make people dependent on others to steal for them, you create more violence, more unrest, more chaos."

The Dark Hood laughs and Oliver could see a faint smile coming from behind the mask of the Dark Hood.

The thought further angers Oliver, "You're not here to aid the people, you've come to incite the people, to cause a rebellion and make them more violent, you don't want to help this city you came here to destroy it!"

"Gentlemen it's time we make our exit why don't we show our esteemed guest the way out." Quickly massive rounds of ammunition fire in Oliver's path, Oliver has no choice but to use his escape arrow, he fires it through the window and on to an adjacent balcony before he presses the winch portion of the arrow that jettisons him out of the ballroom. To his surprise he sees the Dark Hood fly right past him and into a large black hawk chopper, the Dark Hood waives at him before the chopper pulls away from the city and into the darkness.

_So it looks like our "Dark Hood" and Oliver will see each other again. Can anybody guess who the villain is? I didn't make it too hard on you all. _

_ As for Felicity being his "and one" *SPOILER ALERT* There are rumors that Oliver is going to ask Felicity on a date in the season premiere of Season 3. To really think that the writers would go to this so quickly would be a mistake, they said "ask" not "go" which means he probably asks, then something bad probably happens and Oliver will realize that he can't be with Felicity yet. Eventually as the season progresses I think you will see them together, but not the first episode. They have to solve the Laurel issue first, (since she looks like she's joining) love triangles bring viewers and you know that there going to try to tear Oliver apart, Felicity is probably going to have a love life of her own so that Oliver can be with Laurel and then Oliver will have to make a choice, that's typically how these things go down._

_ Plus Amell put a facebook picture of Detective Lance up, every saying it's a spoiler alert for being alive. People forget that they did have Sarah Lance flashbacks, don't be surprised if we have Laurel Lance flashbacks since she is probably becoming the Canary. So don't think it means he survived just yet._

_ Once again thanks for reading and please follow/leave reviews if you like the story so far it gives more motivation to do bigger things._


	4. The Summoning

_So, I have to say I was a little bummed that no one left a comment to guess who the villain was in the last piece. I also understand that I'm new to this environment and that you all are getting used to me. So hopefully with the more work I put out the more you all will get used to me and the more interactive these pieces will become. I'm also working on an AU for Mortal Kombat called "The Gathering" so feel free to check that out, and I'm also going to start posting some work on again soon, the first weekof those pieces will always be free so if you like what I write pay attention because I'm starting to get my preps ready for that as well._

_**Once again here are the rules:**_

_**I must go in order of the album and I must use every track on the album even if it isn't a song.**_

_**I don't have to extract lyrics I can basically go with the themes if I want.**_

_**Story does not have to follow cannon but I will probably go in and out of that.**_

_So this is where this album write gets interesting, the fourth track on __**The Hunting Party**__ is called __**The Summoning**__ and it's a one minute instrumental that leads into the next song __**War**__. Now as the rules say I must go in order even if it isn't a song, and another rule that I should add is I can't have the next song influence the previous so I can only use the one minute instrumental as my theme for this piece. In the first fifteen seconds the instrumental is very subtle very quiet, then the guitars start coming in and the tracks get louder, then for the next twenty-five seconds the track speeds up and gets louder and louder, until it feels like a panic, then it's silent, and you can hear muffled voices in the background. So this is what I came up with…._

**The Summoning**

Oliver races down the steps to the new lair, as his feet reach the concrete floor of the basement of his old home, he sees Digg's panic in his eyes, Oliver has never seen that type of panic in Digg's eyes, he's always been the calming influence of the team so he knows that something must be wrong, terribly wrong.

"What is it Digg?" Oliver tentatively asks, knowing that only one scenario could induce such a panic in him but hoping that it could be something else.

"I don't know how to say this, but a bullet must of ricocheted and one caught her jugular."

Instantly all of Oliver's joints freeze, he knows from Digg's face that Felicity must have caught a bullet or a piece of shrapnel from the Dark Hood's attack at the convention tonight, but not the jugular, not _that._

He rushes over to Felicity, blood covering her chest, all her bandaging is soaked in red, Oliver nearly collapses but saves himself by leaning his elbows on the med table.

He can hear her breathing, it's shallow and _liquid_ he sees blood trickling out of her mouth, and then she coughs spewing the crimson liquid all over Oliver's face.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to do that." Felicity gargles, trying to force a smile. Oliver wants to put his mask on, his "Oliver" mask, the one that he puts on to soothe people, but he knows she'll see right through it, so instead he smiles and for once doesn't fight the tears from streaking down his face.

She runs over to him, she's seen him hurt before, too many to count, but this time it's different, usually when he's hurt he's either unconscious or so stoic about it that she starts yelling at him for not taking his injuries seriously enough. No, tonight he's doing neither of those things, instead, he's _convulsing_, she knows what is happening, his body is reacting to something that happened to him, it's trying to tell Oliver that whatever he just endured is even too much for him.

She knows what's she's supposed to do, she pulls out the herbs from the island and a bottle of water, knowing that whatever poison is in his system the magic herbs will fix it, but then she sees the blood, it's _black_, whoever hurt him they knew where to hurt him, because his liver has exploded, and all of that fluid has entered his blood stream and poisoned all of it's in its current dark state. She knows now that no herbs or a whole bush of herbs will help him, only a blood transfusion will work, but the convulsing says to her that it's much too late for that. Digg finally arrives behind him and two words say it all.

"Oh God."

Laurel makes her way into the intensive care room where her father has been resting in an induced coma for months. She comes after her work at the DA office right before she goes to Oliver's old mansion to train. Seeing her father gives her the motivation to protect Starling City from those that did the same damage to her father, to Tommy, to Oliver. Sarah, her little sister, had grown up and matured beyond her years, she knew her place among the assassins, and she blessed her with the responsibility in following what her sister called "The Canary's footsteps."

When she gets there, things aren't quite the same, her father's is blocked from vision by curtains, as she approaches the nurse, the nurse looks up at her and presses her lips together as if she was going to say her goldfish died.

"I'm sorry Ms. Lance, but there seems to be a complication with Mr. Lance at the moment. The doctors are looking at him now, if you could have a seat in the lobby I will come get you when he's available."

"Don't," is the next thing Felicity whispers out of her mouth, "Don't feel sorry for me, you carry enough guilt, I chose to be in this with you, I knew…" coughs again.

Oliver places his hand over her forehead, "Don't talk, you'll lose your strength, save your air."

Felicity tries to stifle a laugh but she just coughs more blood instead, "I'm dying idiot, I'm at least going to die rambling."

Oliver can't help but let out a smile, in that moment not because of her situation but because of how she handles the situation, he can't handle himself anymore and tears streak down his face, "I love you Felicity. I wanted it to be me on that table."

Felicity shakes her head, "No, you're always trying to die, you have to live, this city needs you, if someone has to die, than the best person to die is me."

"No you can't!" Oliver yells.

Felicity starts to let the tears go herself, "Just promise me that you'll see me in the afterlife and we'll have a much better date than the one we had tonight."

"God damn it Oliver!" She screams, "Why can't you protect yourself!" She screams, "Why! Why can't you see that you had a reason to live!" She stops herself not realizing how quickly the word _had_ slipped from her lips. She sees the blood, black, thick, oozing out his stomach, and for once she can't solve this mystery, there is no solution to this answer, fate had given her the answer before she could even solve the problem.

"Code blue in room one-fifteen, code blue in room one-fifteen." Almost immediately Laurel realizes whose room "room one-fifteen" is, _it's her father's._ Without thought she rushes through the doors but the nurse catches her and stops her progress, "Ms. Lance you can't be in here, the doctors need space! She then looks up as she's being dragged back into the lobby, at her father being launched upward as the defibrillator sends its jolt into her father's heart.

"I love you." Felicity says as clearly as ever, Oliver shakes his head.

"No Felicity this is not the end, stay with me Felicity!" Then as a last sense of courtesy Felicity closes her eyes so that Oliver doesn't have to witness them rolling into the back of her head and then she is still. Oliver screams and slams his fist into the med table.

Suddenly the convulsions stop and Oliver's body relaxes, she then goes into a small convulsion herself before collapsing to the ground and unleashing a primordial scream.

Laurel sits in the front row next to her mother and sister as the the soldiers fold the American Flag over her father's casket. The flag is handed to her mother as the bagpipes unleash _Amazing Grace _and as the song finishes the first set of seven shots fires into the air and the sound does nothing but jolt her into nothing but more tears.

Oliver, Felicity, and Laurel all jolt up instantaneously. All three covered in sweat, Oliver looks up at Felicity who was running searches on the new Dark Hood, Felicity looks down at his cot, both are breathing heavily Felicity with tears in her eyes, Oliver covers his face immediately to prevent his from ever occurring. Laurel with hands still shaking dials the ICU nurse call station.

"Starling City Intensive Care?"

"Yes, this is Laurel Lance I'm just calling to check on my father."

"Oh Ms. Lance he's right where you left him."

"Oh, thank you."

_Let me know what you think…._


	5. War

_Thanks for all the wonderful reactions to "The Summoning" I was having some problems with it because I wanted the situations to feel more "realistic" but I wanted the three to be dreaming at once. So I decided to go with the three dreaming and let the dreams each tell a story. I thought the piece was really powerful in the end._

_I would also like to thank __**mjf2468 **__for favoriting this story. That is always much appreciated. _

_**Once again here are the rules:**_

_**I must go in order of the album and I must use every track on the album even if it isn't a song.**_

_**I don't have to extract lyrics I can basically go with the themes if I want.**_

_**Story does not have to follow cannon but I will probably go in and out of that.**_

_The next song on "The Hunting Party" is a song called __**War.**__ It is one of the short harder songs that Linkin Park likes to throw on their albums. To my surprise it starts out kind of "punky" (if that makes sense) they use duel guitars throughout the song, and then as the song progresses and the lyrics come out it reminded me of a Metallica song from the album St. Anger, lot of pauses, dark grungy like grunts and chanting. The combination of Chester's screeching and the duel guitars made it hard for me to understand the lyrics so I actually had to look them up (fail) and the lyrics sound like a rally or riot call and I thought with that, that it's time to reveal who our villain is._

**War**

Oliver Queen exits the executive elevator followed closely behind by his guard Diggle, as customary Felicity Smoak is already waiting for him, the two share a prolonged stare at each other, both trying to overcome the striking vividness of their dreams from the early morning. Felicity as usual maintains a spotless physical appearance but the usual color or flare in her dress is not there, Felicity literally wears her emotions on her sleeves, in case of today they are white just like her fear that trembles in her anytime she recollects on seeing Oliver's black blood poisoning his veins and him spasming to his painful death. The further memory that that fear of Oliver's death also resides in her attire, her skirt which stops just above the knee is pitch black and so are her patent leather pumps, even her lipstick which usually is the most vibrant feature that she wears is more nude colored than it usually is. What really is a major tell to Oliver about how she is feeling is that her red nail polish is cracking leaving large gaps of actual fingernail showing through her hands.

Oliver however doesn't notice this however because he is still concentrating on her neck, of course Oliver has thought before about what it would feel like to lick, suck, kiss, and nibble that slender neck all the way down until he approaches her breasts, but today he check to make sure that all her veins are still intact, that she's _operating_ at her normal capacity.

"Oliver?" Digg brings him out of his haze, "You alright man?"

"Yeah, fine, had trouble sleeping you know the usual island stuff you know."

Digg raises an eyebrow at Felicity, and Felicity just presses her lips together and shrugs her shoulders doing her best to fake her emotion as well.

"Well Oliver, I continued my searches through the night on our new hood, really what's with all the hoods…not that your hood is bad, I think you make it look good…you know in dangerous kind of way…but not a sexy dangerous way…like a non-sexy dangerous kind of way."

Oliver can't help but instinctively smile her babbles are an elixir to him, always putting another spring in his step before someone tries to knock him down again.

Felcitiy continues, "Surprisingly enough, he's struck before, but not here, most of the reports fitting this strong figure wearing a black hood with red lettering most of the reports come from Gotham City, goes in and attacks one percenters or those holding high office, steals everything and then gives it to the less fortunate, basically he's robin hood in combat boots."

"What happened to him in Gotham?" Oliver asks.

"Well they have a hero of the city as well, Batman, wears a suit like a bat and everything, I can just imagine you in a suit that looks like a bat.."

"Felicity," Oliver interrupts, "So he's come here to challenge himself against another hero?"

Felicity chuckles, "No Mr. Ego, that's not the case, no I think he realized that there are greener pastures, like third world countries, areas with poor corrupt governments that don't have billionaires…or used to be billionaires that wear masks around to stop him, and now he's obviously returned stateside but instead of returning to Gotham, I think Starling City attracted him because of something else that just happened."

Felicity turns her screen so Oliver can see and he sees a headline from a Gotham newspaper about massive rioting in the financial sector of Gotham City, massive red paint smeared on every building large capital "A"s with circles drawn around them.

"The news reported it as an Occupy Gotham protest gone wrong, but most likely it was a way for City Hall to turn the public against the Occupy movement, to me, our hood likes to start riots, and Slade Wilson's army showed this hood quite nicely that our city has the capabilities to start one heck of a riot ourselves.

He does it in the same process, use of sophisticated military technology, digitally steals billions with a b from the city, gives a lot of it away to the less fortunate places he has visited, makes the people feel like the rich are holding money from the poor, starts a riot, violence ensues then he keeps a big chunk of it for himself and then returns the unused money back so he can do it again at a later date. In the meantime he gets a natural following of radicals that continue his causes while he goes into hiding."

"So he's coming to Starling City," Oliver starts to ask but Felicity interrupts.

"To expand his reach, he goes to a new city, starts a new riot, creates more radicals, news feeds the riots to the previous cities, then they launch their attacks, move on to another city and repeat the same."

"Until you have chaos everywhere," Oliver concludes.

At City Hall the newly elected mayor of Starling City is in the process of receiving his twenty-third phone call of the day, the Starling City economy is at a standstill while this new hood remains on the loose with Starling City's most wealthiest's money. Since the attack he has received constant phone calls from the wealthy asking what City Hall is doing to get their money back. The mayor knows that all these people have insurance just in case something like this happens, so he spends most of the calls trying to convince the people that things should run as usual and the new hood will be caught…eventually.

The suddenly sounds of a helicopter whir above him and men and black combat gear smash through the windows of his office, his security attempt to fight them off but they are met with bullets to their extremities. Finally as the mayor hides under his desk, he sees the Dark Hood, swing through the broken glass and land gracefully on his feet.

"Good afternoon Mr. Mayor I hope we haven't interrupted anything?" The Dark Hood speaks a white mask covering his face, the a red encircled capital A embroidered over his left breast, "Just remain calm Mr. Mayor and you will still be alive after we leave."

One of the soldiers pulls a tripod out and attaches high definition camera to the tripod, he nods to the Dark Hood, the Dark Hood pulls a small remote like device out of his hood pocket and presses a red button in the middle of the remote.

The television screen in the executive lobby immediately switches without anyone commanding it to do so. Oliver, Felicity, and Diggle all stare up at the screen and to their shock, the Dark Hood and his white mask encompass the screen.

"We interrupt this program, well all programs actually, every cable and satellite feed coming into Starling City is now solely on this signal. Over the last few days you have heard reports of a Dark Hood disrupting a Queen Consolidated dinner convention and unfortunately for many of the guest in attendance their life savings were liquidated. In that span the money that lets face it, will stay in banks to collect interests does no good to help society, it just makes the rich richer and the poor more less fortunate. So that money was sent to various less fortunate neighborhoods all over America, to third world countries so they can fight poverty and hunger and disease.

I would like to let it be known that I am not a villain, I am not Malcom Merlyn, Slade Wilson, or Moira Queen, I am not planning for the destruction of this city, all I ask is for a little a_narchy,_a little anarchy to be brought to this city to make the most fortunate realize that their money should not sit in banks, they should be given to the people, so that the people could have the same chance of success that those more fortunate already have.

So as I sit here today, my machine has liquidated all of Starling City's budget, that money your tax dollars now belong to me, don't worry the schools will not be disrupted, infact I'm adding to their budgets so that the Starling City public schools now have more money at their disposal than all the preparatory schools that the elite send their kids too. All the utilities will stay the same, except one, the police, the budget for the Starling City Police has now been eliminated, no longer will the police be able to protect the interests of the rich to maintain enslaving the poor.

The remainder of the budget will now become the Anarchy budget, very soon everyone in the bottom quartile income in this city will receive a "donation" and they will continue to receive donations as long as I have your loyalty. As for the billions that I liquidated earlier, they will be receiving a large portion of their money returned to them shortly, when that happens you will have a brief time to make the changes necessary to create social change. If I feel that your progress isn't satisfactory enough, than I will take it again by force and repeat the same process again.

So tonight let's celebrate our day of anarchy, by destroying the institutions that corrupt this city, banks, corporations, all need to see our wrath, tonight is your night to prove your loyalty to our cause."

The Dark Hood laughs, "And I have a special treasure hunt for everyone in Starling City, including the fortunate, your _Hood¸your Arrow_ as he likes to call himself, he at first took on the cause that I passionately support but the more fortunate has changed him, he now protects the rich, he helped destroy the Glades killing hundreds, but came to rescue those that I liquidated previous days ago, he now supports the same forces that have made you suffer, end his corruption, _kill him_, and as a reward one billion dollars will be entered into your bank account on proof of his death."

Felicity gasps and holds her hand to her mouth, she starts to feel her recollection of her dream coming true, tears start to streak from her eyes, Oliver however is stoic, angered by the bounty placed on his head."

"Let us enjoy tonights festivities everyone, let us appreciate the anarchy." The feed goes black with only the symbol of a red A encircled in red smear adorning the screen.

_Before you all freak out on me I know the villain's name is called "Anarky" instead of Anarchy, but that's his name, not how you say it, and he hasn't called himself by his name yet. Didn't get a huge amount of time to comb through this piece so it may have some errors, I apologize and if it's causing to many problems I can go back and fix all of them later. Until next time…._


	6. Wastelands

_Once again thanks for the incredible response to this story. I really like how this story is taking place, the fun part is that I really don't know what the next part is going to be until I listen to the next track a few times. So unlike most stories where I at least have an outline or a map to where the story should go, I feel a little suspense as I listen to the song and wonder if the next song fits with everything I've done before or will it be totally different._

_Rules:_

_**I must go in order of the album and I must use every track on the album even if it isn't a song.**_

_**I don't have to extract lyrics I can basically go with the themes if I want.**_

_**Story does not have to follow cannon but I will probably go in and out of that.**_

_The next song on "The Hunting Party" is called __**Wasteland**__, immediately upon seeing the title I thought either the Island, Glades, or the upcoming anarchy riot. The song starts out with some strong drums as if something is gathering, so Lian Yu was out, then Mike Shinoda lyrics talk about the emptiness of everything, so then I think "A Gathering plus an emptiness" so these two alone felt like the riot culminating in Starling City. Then Chester Bennington supplies the chorus:_

_**In the wastelands of today,  
When there's nothing left to lose,  
And and there's nothing more to take,  
But you force yourself to choose,  
In the wastelands of today,  
When tomorrow disappears  
When the future slips away,  
And your hope turns into fear,  
In the wastelands of today.**_

_This part really pulls out Oliver's choice on how to act on this matter, if he chooses to protect himself Starling City will certainly be overrun by the rioters, if he tries to stop the riot the one billion dollar bounty on his head will certainly leave him dead. His future has disappeared, either destroy the city or destroy himself. Guess which one Oliver is going to choose?_

**As always: I own nothing, well I do own stuff, just not what I'm writing.**

**Wastelands**

Starling City lies empty, it's life abandoned, everyone that resides in Starling City has chosen to leave town or lock themselves in their homes. The taxi service has locked up their cars in their garage not wanting their drivers killed or their cars to be destroyed. Workers have all left to return to their homes to either protect themselves or to get ready to participate in the massive riot. Others come to participate just as a chance that this new dark hood will recognize them and give them a "donation", others have even stocked themselves with weapons hoping that The Arrow would come for their chance to become a billionaire and be set for life. For another night, Starling City is lawless. The quietness and the emptiness is deafening, the only sounds heard are the sounds of news helicopters from all over the area encircling the city wondering when the riots will begin.

As twilight turns to darkness, some of the more rowdy drugged and intoxicated members of the riot commence the beginning of the destruction. They begin blasting windows with bats, trashcans, or anything else they can find, soon the atmosphere changes, and the fear is gone, the police had decided that no one should be risking their lives if their jobs are in limbo, because their families wouldn't get the pensions and insurance that was promised to them, so the chief decided earlier in the evening that the police should be with their families, but in fact some of the police have actually joined the riots in hope of killing the Arrow.

The Governor did call in the National Guard to help quell the riot but the Dark Hood made a visit to the Governor's office and promised that the entire state budget would be liquidated if the forces were not called back, out of fear for the other residents of his state he instead set up a perimeter around Starling so that no one from other areas could join the riots. It was a compromise that the Dark Hood was pleased to accept because he knew now that his night of anarchy was now sealed and protected by the Governor himself.

The more casual rioters start to lose their fear and join in on the festivities, red spray paint is beginning to be smeared all over the city, red encircled A's start appearing everywhere, the anarchy that the Dark Hood craves is now started to cultivate.

Outside the city, the Queen Mansion has extra security encircling the perimeter of the grounds, the Dark Hood still believes that the Queen name has no more value and so Oliver's accounts have been spared. Most of his money is actually hidden in various accounts and switched on a regular basis by one of Felicity's programs but knowing how efficient the Dark Hood's machine is, Oliver is just pleased that so far his wealth has not been discovered.

"You can't possibly be thinking about going out there tonight?" Felicity angrily glares at Oliver, her arms folded across her chest, Felicity hopes the look she's giving gets her point across, but why she really folds her arms is to hide her trembling hands from Oliver's vision.

"I have no choice, I can't just sit here and watch the city be destroyed, I've worked so hard, I owe people too much just to give up now." Oliver takes a moment to reflect on Tommy and the other hundreds of people that died the night of The Undertaking,

"Do you not get it! You don't give your life enough credit, don't you realize that you have a life worth living for now!" Again, tears start filling up in Felicity's eyes, the words and the tone of those words make her recollect her dream of Oliver dying on the streets, and now her dream seems more and more like a premonition.

"She's right Oliver, there are thousands of people on the streets waiting for you to show up so that they have a chance of killing you and becoming a billionaire. These aren't Mirakuru filled thugs that you can deactivate with a serum. These are people wanting to kill you to set their family for life. We can't protect you Oliver, you have to think of another way."

"There isn't one!" Oliver shoots back, "Maybe martyrdom is the only way to save this city, maybe I'm causing all the problems, maybe if I die, crazy villains won't come after this city anymore."

"No," Felicity nervously responds, "No, you are the light to this city, this city has been in darkness for years, this city would be even worse if it wasn't for you, thousands would have died in The Undertaking if it wasn't for you."

"What about Slade then, he came here because of me."

"It would have been somebody else, a corrupt politician, perhaps Malcom Merlyn would still be unleashing hell upon this city, Starling City didn't start defending itself until you came along, and it will stop if you are gone. QC will be gone for good this time, and thousands will be jobless, crime will go up, and this city would die slowly, tonight is just a riot, it will run out of steam, he's baiting you!"

Oliver shakes his head, "No, he taunted Gotham for years, returning and stealing back the funds, starting more trouble, he's taken this city hostage, and I have to stop him."

The riot has reached the grounds of Queen Consolidated. Almost immediately large objects are hurled at the windows smashing them to bits, rioters knock out as much glass as possible and enter in the lobby of QC. Spray paint is being adorned all over the walls of QC, some rioters attempt to break into the elevators but security had shut down the elevators and they all reside in the basement to make sure that Queen Consolidated is not ransacked. Eventually the mob feels satisfied with their work and begins the find another building to destroy.

Oliver begins to suit up, by now Felicity simply sits in her chair quietly, she knows that Oliver has nothing but a death wish and nothing she says will be able to stop him.

"Oliver?" Another female voice rings out, Oliver looks up to see Laurel dressed in simply jeans and a tee shirt, looking directly at him with the same look she had just before he left her to fight Slade. For once in her life, Felicity hopes that Oliver will choose to follow Laurel instead, it will break her heart but he will still be alive, and that matters most to her at this point.

"You can't do this Oliver, he just wants to pin you against them. If you try to stop the riot then you prove to the people that the Dark Hood is right."

"It doesn't matter if he's right or not, I have to show this Dark Hood, that I am not afraid of him, and that I will stop him."

"Well than I'm going with you," another voice rings out, Oliver looks around Laurel and sees Roy, his face stoic, resolute, "I've given up too much to watch this city die, if you're going Oliver, I'm going with you."

Oliver shakes his head, "I need you to stay here, someone is going to have to take my place."

Felicity spasms and nearly collapses from her chair, "Why are you doing this."

Oliver presses his lips together, "Because there is no other choice to make."

Felicity stiffens the fact that he uses his words to her, against her, she wants to be angry, but instead she runs over to him and embraces him, "Please," she sobs, "Don't go."

Oliver kisses her on the forehead, wipes a tear from her cheek with his finger and walks to his bike. Oliver revs the bike and shoots out into the streets and past the blockade from the National Guard.

He enters the city a few minutes later and he can already hear the sounds of the rioters from all the way across the city, from the locations of the sounds he can already pinpoint that they are in the Financial District. He doesn't put his com in his ear because he doesn't want anyone else to try to stop him, what he is about to do must be done, he must prove a message to the Dark Hood that he cannot take this city hostage. That his thoughts will not cripple this city, he once again has to change, he has to make the Hood, the Arrow, a symbol of something bigger than just a man in a green suit shooting arrows, it has to become an idea, a virtue, and to do that the task must be done.

He steers the bike to take the long run around so that he can take on the riot head on, finally can see the mob, and eventually they see him.

"It's the Hood, I want him! He's mine!"

Bullets start flying in Oliver's direction and Oliver does his best to dodge the bullets for now, for this to work he must be seen by everyone. He finally approaches the mass, he gets off his bike and stands before them, the rioters mostly stop in awe of him, shocked that he would actually commit an act of virtual suicide to try and stop them.

Oliver looks towards an alleyway and then finally he pulls out his bow, a gunshot shoots out but the accuracy is poor.

"I will not fight you!" Oliver calls out in his masked voice, he places his bow and his quiver down and stands before the mass, "Go ahead, I won't hold it against you."

Most of the rioters start calm themselves, they can't believe that a man would just offer himself up to them like that, but eventually the temptation of a billion dollars comes to fruition and a gunshot fires out from the darkness, the bullet strikes Oliver directly in the chest and he collapses to the ground, the mob immediately runs to him, but once they reach him, the body of the Arrow is no longer there, no traces of the man anywhere, no blood trail, just a quiver, a bow, and a bike remain.

Immediately the mob spreads out trying to find the man that just took a bullet to the chest, eventually the event stops being a riot and transforms into a manhunt. The massive mob disperses all over the city, some wanting to find the Arrow so they can claim the billion dollars, others wanting to just know what happened to him, some wondering whether or not the Arrow has superpowers. Eventually the mob is spread out so much that people tire out and decide that enough is enough. The Arrow through his sacrifice has ended the anarchy.


	7. Until It's Gone

_Just like to say thank you to everyone for the HUGE response to __**Wastelands**__. I really don't know where the story is going to go until I listen to the song a few times, so I really don't know how everyone is going to respond to it, so when it gets such a great response it gets me more excited to work on this piece. So really once again THANK YOU for making this fun for me to write._

_Now on to business, the next song is another feature song of __**The Hunting Party, **__this song is titled __**Until It's Gone**__. If you're an LP fan you've heard this song many times already and I was really excited to get to this song. However I couldn't pick up what the "It" was in the song, was it life, happiness, possessions, or a little bit of everything? I couldn't visualize the "it" so I did another piece of research and watched the video. First of all, it's a pretty good vid, lot of visual effects, lots of jamming going on, good stuff, first they show a woman in the vid and I thought, "Okay it's another Chester breakup song" but then they consistently show images of blood in the video, one as coming off of Hahn's hands, another out the earlier woman's ear, then a man on his death bed coming out of his nose. So to me the "it" that is gone is a mixture of love and death. _

_Then I looked at the lyrics and I started to further break down the "it"_

_Here's the first lyric_

_**A fire needs a space to burn  
A breath to build a glow  
I've heard it said a thousand times  
But now I know**_

_This is the separation makes you stronger so called theory._

_**I thought I kept you safe and sound  
I thought I made you strong  
But something made me realize  
That I was wrong**_

_COME ON! Does that sound like anyone to you?_

_**'Cause finding what you got sometimes  
Means finding it alone  
And I can finally see your light  
When I let go**_

_Ah, this one made me stop and go, "Wow, this could mean so many things." So I'm excited, let's get on with it shall we?_

_**As always I own none of the characters I'm about to use…but I do own the one's in my book! Sector Seven! (Shameless Plug!)**_

**Until It's Gone**

"We have to come up with a cover story," Felicity spits out to the rest of the group who all are motionless and dead inside after watching the helicopter feed of Oliver taking a bullet straight to the chest, "If they know that Oliver has disappeared, and The Arrow has disappeared at the same time, then everyone can put the two together, so we'll need to think of something."

Digg does his best to smile but can't get his facial muscles to do the necessary work, "Felicity, I know how this feels, I've seen friends take shots just like that…"

"HE'S NOT DEAD!" Felicity calls out, "The feed even proves it, just watch it,"

"Felicity," Digg places a hand on her shoulder, "We all watched it, and it's a straight shot to the chest."

"Watch it." Felicity growls, she plays the scene over again, Oliver dropping his bow and quiver to the ground, then the gun fires, hits Oliver in the chest and Oliver disappears, "You see, straight bullet to the chest probably from a high powered rifle due to the trajectory and entry point of the bullet, yet Oliver is gone, no blood, no body, everyone has been searching for him, the rioters, the police officers who weren't cowards, no one can find anything, so until they find a blood sample or his body I say he's out there somewhere, and damn it Digg, you're going to come up with a cover story because you're his security and if they find him with a giant hole in his chest, then and only then, can you console me, deal?"

Digg inhales deeply, "Due to the sometimes strenuous relationship some citizens of Starling City have with Mr. Queen, me and my security team have decided to evacuate Mr. Queen from Starling City until the Dark Hood has been found and Starling City is secure, in the meantime any request for Mr. Queen can be sent to his office and will be answered or responded to by the board of Queen Consolidated or Mr. Queen's executive assistant."

Felicity exhales, "Thank you Digg."

Diggle places a hand on her shoulder and quietly saunters away.

_Special announcement from the Mayor of Starling City_, the news broadcast that is playing on one of the flat screens inside the foundry starts to blare. Most of the team turns their attention to the monitor while others choose to sulk in their corners; Felicity pays no attention as she repeatedly goes through the footage of the riot looking for clues as to Oliver's location.

The Mayor steps up to a podium in the pressroom of City Hall, "Good evening everyone, as we know tonight was another black eye placed on the face of Starling City, many mistakes were made, some by the citizens of this city for rioting and destroying property and even in a very public way a cold blooded murder of a defenseless man. I assure you we have made duplicate copies of the footage of tonight's riot and those involved will be thoroughly prosecuted. Those however were not the only mistakes made tonight, I in the ways that a great hero once said, 'I failed this city.'"

Felicity spasms at the tense of the mayor's words, the mayor continues, "I came to this office to fight for Starling City but I did exactly what every other mayor has done, I collapsed under the pressure, under the influence of anything but the people that I serve, this sentiment is not only felt by me but by other prominent members of our society. After the events of tonight, and after the great sacrifice made by what we can no longer claim anything but a hero to our City, we must not let The Arrow die in vain, so the Mayor's Office as well as those members who will not be named for their protection, are pledging money to fund the police force so that they can once again protect this city, we are also creating programs that in exchange for returning the so called "donations" soon to be made by the Dark Hood, that money will be matched by these prominent members and the stolen donations as well as the matched donation will go into a Starling City recovery fund, this fund will be used for reconstruction, income support, and entrepreneurial efforts all over Starling City with the focus on the damaged areas of the Glades and the damaged areas from tonight's riot. The City and I failed to stop tonight's events and from my heart my deepest apologies are in store, but I pledge that we now see what has to be done, this isn't just one man's job to save the city anymore, it's everyone's and I promise you that The Arrow's sacrifice will bring a bright future to escape from this dark day, goodnight."

Felicity finds the remote and hurls it at the television, "He's not dead! No body, no blood, means he still alive, Roy check the inventory, I bet you a million bucks a Kevlar vest is missing."

Digg shakes his head, "Oliver doesn't like Kevlar, it messes with his arrow…" Digg pauses, "He never was going to fire an arrow."

Felicity smiles and holds out three fingers, "Three, two, one…"

"You're right barbie, there's only two vests instead of three."

"And where did the bullet hit? Anyone? That's right, in the chest, so we owe it to Oliver to treat him like he's still alive and needing of our help, so everyone needs to get off their ass and stop feeling sorry for themselves, and help me find him!"

Felicity turns to her screens to reload the footage again, "Damn it Oliver, why didn't you wear your comm?" Felicity's hands start to shake, she tries to cover her face to hide the tears from everyone else but she knows she can't hide it she's too passionate to hide anything, "Damn it Oliver! You're supposed to use me to protect you, I tried to keep telling you that you have so much to live for and yet you keep trying to kill yourself! You're not on the island anymore Oliver! You don't have to kill yourself to escape, you made it off alive! I get it Oliver…" she sputters as tears flow through her face, everyone is feeling Felicity's soul as she screams at her computers, "I get it, your parents are dead and Thea's missing, but you have a family, a strong one, you have Digg, and Roy, and Me, and Laurel. You had, I mean have support and all you want to do is find new ways of destroying yourself, damn it!" She slams a fist into her desk and without even noticing she snaps a keyboard in two, Felicity looks at the keyboard in utter shock, "I'm so sorry." She picks up the keyboard halves and hugs them, "I'm so sorry I didn't mean to hurt you."

Roy, Digg, and Laurel look at each other wondering whether or not Felicity's behavior is due to her usual quirkiness or if she's losing her mind. Laurel finally breaks the tension with a sigh, "Guys, I think Felicity would appreciate it if you two go out and search for Oliver."

Felicity looks up, realizing that Laurel is asking to be alone with her, the previous time this occurred was when they were chained up against a post in the refinery before Oliver came and rescued them from Slade, that time the two said nothing. For some reason, Laurel asking the boys to leave brings her comfort, "Yes, but where the Kevlar, and no hoods, wear your comms and I will create a search area based on the footage we have."

The two look at each other and then nod back at Felicity, they go over to their gear, grab it and decide that its best this time to suit up in the car. Laurel finds a chair and pulls it next to Felicity, there is a long pause and again Laurel sighs, "You know I wished I acted like you the last time everyone thought Oliver died. Instead I got mad at him."

"Me cussing him out in the dark is not mad at him?" Felicity answers.

Laurel smiles, "No, you're not mad at him, I was mad at him, especially when I found out Sarah was on the boat with him. I destroyed everything he ever gave me, I drank, I slept with his best friend."

Felicity tries to stifle a laugh but can't stop herself, Laurel smiles at Felicity, "But I remember one thing deep inside that I've never told anyone, I even tried to lie to myself about it with more drinking and more hatred." Laurel bows her head, tears starting to streak from her eyes as she digs the memory of her feelings back through her subconscious and into the light, "I was relieved."

Felicity turns to her in utmost shock, Oliver's love, his motivation for getting off the island, the one person that prevented him from giving into to the hopelessness of purgatory, was relieved that he was dead.

Laurel's wipes her tears away, "I know what you're thinking, I know that you probably think even less of me now, but Oliver, Oliver was different, he was insecure, he was afraid of everything and because of that he put on that outer skin that playboy skin, and he couldn't ever figure out if he was going to be Oliver or Oliver Queen. When he died, the first time, I was relieved that I didn't have to fight that battle anymore. That I could move on with my life, and then he returned, and all I first wanted him to do was go away so that I wouldn't have to deal with the guilt of the whole thing. But I couldn't help myself and my guilt took over and I felt that the only way to rid myself of that guilt was to reconnect with him. Then you came along."

Felicity continues to stare at her screen creating a search pattern that she can relay to Digg and Roy, "What about me?"

Laurel shakes her head, "When I was drinking coffee at the bar and you called me gorgeous Laurel, I knew then that you liked him, and I just thought, stay away he's damaged goods, he'll ruin you. But instead, you've changed him."

"I didn't change him Laurel," Felicity turns to her and is awestruck by the tears in her eyes, "That part of Oliver was inside there all along, he just needed guidance that's all."

Laurel presses her lips together, "But he found it with you, he never found it with me, he found that balance, the peace that neither of us could ever find with each other. I found it with Tommy…"

Felicity almost instinctively, reaches out and grabs Laurel's shoulder, "And you'll find it again, you're Laurel Lance you're a strong woman, you will find that peace again."

Laurel nods and a silence fills the room, until finally Laurel speaks, "I've found it with my dad, but he may die at any moment, and then I'll be all alone again." Laurel inhales again thinking very carefully about what she has to say, "I should have acted like you did when he died, first died, in that moment of you spilling your feelings, in that moment I realized that I love Oliver, but not like you do, I'm relieved again because I know that Oliver has found that peace with you and you love better than I could have ever…"

Felicity points a finger in Laurel's face, "Don't tell me that you don't have to feel guilty anymore, don't make this about you, or I swear…"

Laurel shakes her head, "No, not like that at all, it's different this time because I am more relieved but I also feel even more guilty if anything, because now I feel that in my attempt to end my guilt, I kept you apart. I guess that what I'm trying to get at is that I just want to tell you that I will do anything to find him, so that this time the person he comes back home for will actually be relieved that he's back."

"So you think he's still alive?" Felicty asks as she wipes more tears from her face, now realizing how hard this must be for Laurel to admit.

Laurel smiles, "He's come back from the dead once, he can certainly do it again."

"Alright Felicity were in the city where do we need to start?" Digg calls out on his comm unit.

Felicity smiles, _I'm going to find you Oliver, even if it takes another five years,_ "Let's do a three mile radius around the point that Oliver was shot, so Roy take the east and Digg take the west and tell me what you see."

_Had no idea that this is where the story would end up but it just started coming out that way, let me know what you all think._


	8. Rebellion

_So I sincerely apologize for the long delay in writing this chapter. A few reasons for that, one, work started up again so that takes a lot of my time, two I'm prepping some work that I'm going to publish on so that takes a lot of my time, and last and probably most important to this piece…I had no clue on how to write this one._

_So far, __**Hunting Party **__hasn't thrown me for a ton of loops, __**Rebellion**__ on the other hand, threw in a big one, the challenge of writing a story to an album is that sometimes a song doesn't quite go with a lot of the other songs and then it messes up the rhythm you have. I like __**Rebellion**__, especially since they included System of a Down's lead guitarists in it, but any SOAD will tell you that there songs are all over the place with multiple themes. Most of their themes go with class warfare, and this seems to be one of them. _

_I first thought the title "Rebellion" would fit nicely into my story since the Dark Hood is enciting a class warfare rebellion in Starling City, but the lyrics say something different, the "rebellion" occurring in the song is a "fake one" hence this lyric._

_**We are the fortunate ones**_

_**who've never faced oppression's gun.**_

_**We are the fortunate ones**_

_**imitations of rebellion.**_

_This is more of an anti-tea-party song than anything, and that's where it through me. How was I going to create a "fake" rebellion from "the fortunate ones" who think their world sucks but it doesn't? Then suddenly I had an idea…_

**Rebellion**

One by one the Bentleys, Mercedes, and even a few Rolls Royces park in the driveway of the estate that was once owned by the Merlyn family. Today the building stands as a vermin infested relic that once represented all the power and glory money can buy. Every year this group would meet on this very day to discuss the future vision of Starling City. All of them first believed that Starling City was dying, that it would soon become a slum due to the infestation of a lower class that continues to expand their borders. They had a plan, a very sound, but also very macabre plan to cure the city, and that was to give Starling City a weather problem. Force nature to kill off those that attempt to choke the life out of Starling City by leveling different parts of the city killing thousands and then rebuilding those parts to price out the remaining.

Everyone thought it was a pipe dream but Malcolm Merlyn continued his dream and eventually with his murder of Robert Queen mixed with his romantic affair with Moira coerced Queen Consolidated to build the first portion of the Undertaking, an Earthquake machine that will level the Glades. Eventually as plans became reality many of the members became scared and when the Vigilante arrived picking off list member by list member many couldn't wait to be next so that they could go into custody and sing like a canary about Malcolm Merlyn's psychotic plans.

Then another archer came along, and others began to realize that he worked alongside Merlyn, and those that became a liability took and arrow through the heart. This Dark Archer kept everyone else in line enough that the earthquake had minor success killing hundreds instead of thousands, better than anything Moira Queen outed Malcolm Merlyn and he was later found dead, and since then the Dark Archer has yet to be seen.

Many thought that they had been the fortunate ones, they had survived, they survived The Vigilante, Malcolm Merlyn, the Dark Archer, and most of all from being outed by the news as funders (more like blackmail in some cases) to the Underaking project. With Merlyn finally dead they could go back to their lives without his reign of fear anymore. That was until the letter arrived. The usual invite letter, the letter that hasn't arrived in two years. The letter that invited everyone to the next meeting, out of fear that either someone was picking up the project and wanted to blackmail them further, or someone had discovered their involvement almost all the members that were on the list that hadn't been jailed or killed arrived at Merlyn Manor in hope that this is nothing more than a hoax.

Some of them had already had their bank accounts stolen earlier by the Dark Hood, so their financial involvement in the continuation of The Undertaking would be near impossible at this point since their insurance companies are tracking every dollar they spend. At nine o'clock as with every meeting role call was started. It was an awkward roll call, as Malcolm Merlyn's former assistant would call out the names and they would respond, this process takes the first hour of the meeting, previously this time would be the unofficial cocktail hour before Merlyn would arrive with news on the progress, but since the house was abandoned with both Malcolm and Tommy Merlyn officially deceased the manor's power had been cut off years ago, instead candles had been lit around the estate, and no alcohol existed on sight, so everyone stood silently while the names are called out.

Once the last of the roll call is completed, the awkward silence continues, until the sound of an arrow wisps through the roll and punctures the heart of one of the attendees before he can make a sound he falls to the floor dead, soon another arrow flies and another sound a body collapses to the ground, panic ensues as everyone tries to flee the house but the doors have been barricaded in during the roll call. With nowhere else to go everyone starts to hide and find darkness hoping that the archer will not find them, but throughout the house curdling screams echo as more bodies fall to the floor. Finally after what seems like hours there is a calm, an a flaming arrow is finally shot into the ceiling, the flame starts to dart along a path until the fiery message can be spelled out.

_Phase two begins…follow or die._

The Dark Hood, scans the various footage of last night's riot on his tablet, "Impossible, every ounce of research we've done on this Arrow has shown that he possesses no extraordinary abilities, but you all want to tell me that this man can disappear into thin air?"

"Sir," the Dark Hood's machine operator relays back to him nervously, "We have slowed the image down to the millisecond and cannot detect any sign of the Arrow, The only evidence we have found to symbolize any special activity taking place, is a small increase in the electrical field near the financial district where the disappearance took place."

The Dark Hood jolts his head up, "Electrical field?"

"Yes sir, at the moment the disappearance happens a small electrical spike occurs."

"Very well, the either the Arrow hides his powers very well, or he has an ally that generates electricity, use the machine to research various instances where this electrical spike occurs more frequently."

"Yes sir."

_Again sorry for the long wait and the short piece, but this song really through me, hopefully the next track will fit a little better._

_Thanks again!_


	9. Mark the Graves

_Once again, thanks so much to everybody for their patience with the last piece. I had a lot of life stuff going on and I had to figure out how the song fit into the narrative I was giving. Luckily for everyone including me, the next song on Linkin Park's The Hunting Party is a song called __**Mark the Graves.**_

_ Again, upon hearing the title, I thought that this would be an "angsty" song but instead it was a lot different once I started playing it. There is a long instrumental and the beats of this instrumental switch off from being light and slow to dark and fast. There aren't a lot of lyrics to this song either but once I heard the lyrics I knew immediately what I was going to do with it._

_**There's a fragile game we play  
With the ghosts of yesterday  
If we can't let go, we'll never say goodbye**_

No trace of what remains  
No stones to mark the graves  
Only memories we thought we could deny

There was so much more to lose  
Than the pain I put you through  
In my carelessness I left you in the dark

And the blood may wash away  
But the scars will never fade  
At least I know somehow I made a mark

_**As always I do not own any of the characters I'm about to use…because I would be busy with season 3 right now.**_

**Mark the Graves**

After spending the previous night roaming Starling City looking for Oliver's body, Diggle, unlike Felicity who was still in denial, has resigned to the fact that Oliver is beyond just missing. He knows Oliver too well and he knows what it's like to fight for your life and to have to kill various human beings over the course of your life to remain living. That guilt just doesn't go away, and every time you have to kill, the guilt just keeps getting stronger. Diggle doesn't know exactly how many times Oliver has killed someone in his life but he knows that it's too many for a human soul to bare, Oliver always had come back to become a martyr and no matter who tried to convince him that his life was worth living, he could never get that point out of his head. When the bounty was placed on his head by the Dark Hood Oliver saw the moment, the opportune moment to finish what he started, to finally save the city and end his guilt at the same time, to give up his life in the attempt to repay his debt.

In some ways the guilt has now transferred on to him, perhaps if Oliver didn't have the support from him, Felicity, Roy, Laurel, Sarah and others that he wouldn't feel so secure about ending his life, but Oliver knows that even with him dead, there will be others to take up the mantle to keep Starling City safe.

His thoughts are broken when his ringtone goes off, it's Lyla, he sighs and answers the phone.

"John, I need you to come in."

Diggle pauses, "You mean home right?"

"No, I mean in, the squad needs you."

"Now, I can't leave with Oliver gone, the team needs to recover first."

Lyla pauses, "Waller says Oliver owes her a favor for getting him in the facility to face the Dark Hood the first time, I'm afraid you don't have much choice."

"Shit," Diggle grimaces, "Let me at least tell the team."

"I'm sorry you have five minutes this issue is time sensitive."

Felicity hears her phone ring and picks it up, she reads the message and her heart nearly sinks, Oliver is still missing, she refuses to use the word dead, and now Diggle has to leave for a mission with A.R.G.U.S saying that he has to fill in a favor that Oliver promised. For the first time since the Undertaking trapped her in the foundry she feels…_alone. _The adrenaline of her desperate search for Oliver has worn off, and in its place is the insecurity and fear that Oliver would always melt away with a smile or a touch on her shoulder. The last time he left after the Undertaking she had Digg to keep her company to convince her that they would find him, now Digg is gone as well, so she does the one thing that always keeps her mind occupied, she goes back to work. She gets off the couch, puts on Oliver's spare hoodie that he wears when his black shirt underneath his suit would get cut open. The scent of Oliver's sweat and cologne wearing into the hoodie only motivates her to find him more, "Okay babies let's find daddy." She activates her searches once more and then takes a long intake of Oliver's musk that encompasses the collar.

The helicopter sent to pick up Diggle lifts off into the morning sky, inside sits Lyla, Diggle, and some armed guards that Waller sent to ensure proper passage.

"So now that our voices are not on any grid, tell me what's going on." Diggle commands.

"You couldn't ask me how I'm feeling first?" Lyla smiles.

"You're starting to sound like her," Diggle groans.

"That's not funny."

"It wasn't meant to be."

Lyla rubs her palm across her forehead, "Your Dark Hood, he goes by the name Anarky, spelled with a 'k' for some reason. He didn't just arrive in Starling City to do his usual act, he has a partner a very wealthy one….Malcolm Merlyn."

Diggle's head jolts up, "How is that possible he's dead I saw Oliver kill him myself."

"There are legends that the League of Assassins has a ritualistic area that can bring souls back to life."

"You can't seriously believe that."

"I didn't until I saw him with Thea Queen, and the Dark Archer's arrows were spotted in a grisly murder scene of some of Starling City's elite at the Merlyn mansion, Waller took over the investigation of the case so that news of Merlyn's return didn't send the city into another panic."

"Merlyn got what he wanted, he destroyed the Glades, what else does he want?"

Lyla sighs, "From what it looks like, the rest of Starling City."

As his eyes finally open all he can see are small blurs of dim light. He tries his best to move off the cushioned surface he's lying on but a massive pain in his chest prevents him.

"Ah, I'm glad to see you're awake!" A voice rings out from across the room, he immediately tenses, sensing that he may be in danger, he tries once again to pull himself off the couch, but instantly a hand touches his shoulder, "Easy their Oliver, you took a twenty-three caliber shot to the chest, luckily you finally wore that advanced Kevlar that you stupidly refuse to wear on a regular basis."

Oliver's eyes clear to see the smiling face of none other than Barry Allen.

Diggle makes his way inside A.R.G.U.S headquarters, where he enters a room with Amanda Waller sitting at the head of the table, next to Waller are two familiar faces of the previous Suicide Squad that Diggle worked with, Ben Turner the Bronze Tiger sitting on Waller's left, and Floyd Lawton known as Deadshot sitting on Waller's right. To Lawton's right however was someone knew a woman, short blond with large pigtais.

"Good to see you again John," Waller began, "You've met two thirds of the team, let me introduce you to the third this is Doctor Harleen Francis Quinzel but she affectionately likes to call herself Harley Quinn."

Harley Quinn hitches herself upward and unleashes a deep smile that causes Diggle to shiver from the awkwardness of it.

"Ms. Quinn is quite familiar with your Dark Hood."

"His name is Anarky," Quinn interrupts, "He is my son."

"Does anyone know I'm alive," Oliver asks.

Barry shakes his head, "Nope, but they sure have been looking for you, Felicity has the rest of your team searching for you every night."

Oliver closed his eyes, he doesn't want to imagine what is going through Felicity's head at this moment, but at least she has Diggle to keep her company until all of this is over.

"Our plan worked out though, I grabbed you once a shot hit you, than I rushed you to my home, everyone thinks you have superpowers now, nope, just me!"

"The rioting stopped?"

"Almost immediately even the rich are setting up a fund to help reconstruction, and the Dark Hood has not been spotted since."

Oliver shakes his head, "If he wanted the city to crumble he would have just stolen everything and turned Starling City into a slum, the riots were just a front for what he really wanted to do."

He wanted the Riot to end with The Arrow's death," Barry finished for him, "Then why didn't he just use all his resources to come after you?"

"Because he wanted the distraction, there must be a bigger plot, and he needs the Arrow out of the way, and if he could kill two birds with one stone why not?"

"So what do we do now?" Barry asks.

"You're going to take me back."

Barry's head jolts up, "Why, there is still a one billion dollar bounty on your head?"

Oliver smiles, "So I was wondering whether or not you had any more of that Kevlar."

Barry smiles, "I'd never thought you'd ask."

Felicity rubs her eyes with her thumb and forefinger, each search comes back empty no Arrow, no Oliver Queen. Roy much like he has done every night since Oliver went out that fateful night is patrolling the streets of Starling doing what Oliver asked of him, to take his place. Felicity does her best to help Roy with whatever he needs but her concentration is lacking, as she instead spends much of her time updating the weights on her search algorithms, looking for any bite that may alert her of Oliver's existence.

Then suddenly a chime, a small solitary subtle chime rings out on one of her tablets, Felicity quickly snatches it, her hopes rising up again, but before she can read the information, another alert goes off on another tablet, then the her monitors start going off until she finally sees the image, the Arrow, Oliver Queen, _her Oliver_. She gasps, tears start to shudder from her eyes, then she hears four beeps behind her, she knows that Roy is still downtown, she knows Digg with A.R.G.U.S., her breath leaves her, all feelings come at her, hope, fear, despair, happiness, dread…until she finally sees what she thought she would never see again, the Arrow lowering his head to reveal the smiling face of one Oliver Queen.

Without thought, Felicity launches out of her chair, she doesn't even wait for him to come down the steps, "You!" She screams holding the last syllable until she collapses into his chest, "Damn you! Damn you Oliver Queen!" She attempts to nuzzle into his chest but the feeling of his suit doesn't feel the same, she stops and steps back for a second just to make sure that it isn't an imposter.

Oliver presses his lips together, "I had it custom tailored."

Felicity's nostrils flare and without much comprehension she slaps Oliver across the face, "I thought I watched you die! Everyone thinks you're dead, I've spent the last two days holding out all hope and you had enough time to tailor a new suit!"

Oliver can't help but crack a small smile at Felicity's anger, "Perhaps I worded it wrong, I didn't tailor the suit, your friend Barry Allen did, you see he's…changed."

"Yes his molecular structure changed from the lightning strike causing a rapid increase in his fast twitch muscles. I've read his file before, many times."

"Many times?"

Felicity rolls her eyes, "Yes many, so I guess that you and Barry staged the gunshot and he took you to Starling City to lay low."

Oliver smiles, "Well sort of, Barry was waiting for me in Starling City, and the plan was to pull me out of the city after I was struck by the first gunshot, he completed all his measurements for my new suit while I was unconscious."

"What if they struck you in the head, it was a sniper rifle!"

Oliver presses his lips once more, "Laced with curare."

Felicity mouth goes wide, "You let Floyd Lawton shoot you in the chest? The same Floyd Lawton that's currently in custody with A.R.G.U.S. where Diggle just left this morning?"

"Diggle left this morning?"

"Yes! You've been working with Waller the whole time haven't you?"

"I asked for a favor, she knows that I'm more valuable to her alive than dead, so she staged the sniper shot, that's what Barry doesn't know, and Waller has yet to know the existence of Barry Allen's abilities."

"And you thought about all of this on your trip into Starling City and you didn't see anything wrong with not notifying me or anyone else on your team about what you were planning?"

"Because you would have told me it was a bad plan."

"Because it was, first of all a rioter could have killed you before you made it to the staged spot, Lawton could have shot you in the head as revenge for taking out his eye, the curare could have sunk through the Kevlar and killed you because I know that you left your herbs here, you could have suffocated from Barry running so fast and not giving you a chance to breath, do I need to…"

"I love you," Oliver interrupts.

Felicity stops, "What?"

Oliver pulls Felicity in and without warning slams his lips into hers, Felicity wants to make him pay for what she did to him, for making her hurt, making her suffer, but the relief and happiness of seeing him alive, and him saying the three little words overcomes her bitterness and she gives in wrapping her arms around his neck and enjoying the moment instead.

_I had to redo this piece because I lost the file once, I am also starting a few other projects right now so expect the next update to be in about a week or so, once again thanks everybody!_


	10. Drawbar

Hey everyone! I know my posting schedules have been out of whack lately, but as I said before work has started back up and reality sometimes has to take over. On top of that I had been working on my short story series named _This Corporation of Ours._ It's created as a set of chronicles over different time periods that show how The Corporation was created and the current dealings in the Corporation. If you are interested parts 1-5 are 99 cents apiece at , and part six titled "This Corporation of Ours: Control" will be free on starting sometime Friday and for the next five days after that. So if you're interested go check it out or PM me and I will give you the details.

The next track on _**Linkin Park's The Hunting Party**_is named **Drawbar**, it is the second instrumental piece in The Hunting Party and it features Tom Morello from Rage against the Machine. The piece starts out very slow with some piano/keyboard notes (which I assume are from Mike Shinoda) with the guitar (Morello) kicking in, then a little bit of drums kick in and then it ends with the guitar and the keyboard fading out. It's an oddly calming piece compared to much of the other more punk/angst pieces that Linkin Park chose for this album.

So needless to say based on the limited availability of chance for fluff/smut that there has been with doing this, I thought I would give that M rating I gave some validity.

**Once again I do not own any of these characters….I wish I did though.**

**Drawbar**

"_I love you."_

Immediately upon Oliver saying those three words her rant about how even more stupid his usually stupid plan was falls to pieces. She pauses, waiting for Oliver to clarify himself, perhaps he meant the type of "I love yous" people say when they just really mean "I admire you", but the word "admire" is harder to say than "love", and people tend to generalize the word love a lot these days.

However Oliver decides to clarify himself with his actions instead of his words, Oliver forcefully pulls her into him, cups her face, and delivers the kind of kiss that Felicity always assumes Oliver would give, passionate, intense, and slightly painful but oh so god damn good. Felicity wants to push him away make him explain himself more, make him confess all her feelings to her before she finally gives herself to him, but instead she melts, she instinctively wraps her arms around his neck and molds her body into his feeling his warmth all over her body.

Finally the two release for breath, from the combination of overwhelming relief that Oliver is indeed alive and the full physical sensation of Oliver makes her almost feel as if she's about to faint, but her brain, her stubborn brain that wants everything to be perfect can't stop itself from ruining her moment.

"Oliver," she fights to say between breaths, "Please tell me you're not doing this because of some emotional release, I can't handle it if this is going to be a onetime thing."

Oliver smiles, "I was so nervous to ask you to be my and one at the fundraiser, that I would ruin our friendship, that I wouldn't be able to have you be my guiding light anymore, the reason I took my comm out is I knew that you would try to convince me to come back and think of another way, and I knew that I would have done, I would have turned my bike around and spent the entire night in your arms listening to you cry. Not having that comm in was the hardest thing I've ever done, I don't want to hurt you anymore Felicity, because being away from you for these two days made me realize that I can't function without you, I wanted to come back as fast as possible, I wanted to let you know I was safe…"

Felicity hears enough of Oliver's pleading and grabs the back of his head and again slams her lips into his. Oliver's tongue starts to ask for permission and Felicity happily obliges, she turns her face to allow it to get closer, that smell, Oliver's smell, the reason that she kept his sweater on, enters her nostrils and she can't help but release a small moan of pleasure. The noise unleashes the aggression within Oliver, he places his hands underneath her ass and lifts her up off the floor, Felicity not wanting to lose contact with him wraps her legs around Oliver's waist. The two release their kiss once more and Oliver slowly walks Felicity down the stairs, both of them lock their eyes on each other. This time it was Oliver's turn to show some doubt.

"Are you sure? I don't want to…"

"I love you Oliver," Felicity returns, "I've felt something for you since you told me that I was remarkable, and I completely fell for you since you came to me bleeding in my car, that you chose me to rescue you. I just always feared that you would never feel the same way."

Oliver makes his way down the last step of the stairs and starts walking Felicity to the more plush leather couch that Felicity had installed in the room when they moved the foundry into the Queen mansion basement, "I had feelings for you the first time I met you, you were the first person to truly make me smile, I couldn't stop seeing you, then you became my path, my light you led me to be the man I've become, a man I never thought I would be, and I don't want to be anywhere else unless I'm with you."

Oliver smiles and leaves a quick kiss on her cheek, "Felicity, hold me tight."

Felicity smiles, "I thought you wouldn't remember that."

"I remember everything about you, like the first time I saw you in that gold dress."

Felicity lays a quick kiss to Oliver's lips, "So you liked that dress?" She smiles.

Oliver does nothing but nod, as he slowly lowers Felicity onto the leather couch, he lifts himself back up making Felicity slightly whimper from his lack of touch, Oliver reaches below his torso and loosens a clip underneath his vest he removes the first layer of his suit and tosses it to the ground, he reaches for the zipper and Felicity stops him with her foot, "Let me, please let me."

Oliver smiles and lowers himself over Felicity's body, Felicity grabs the zipper and slowly lowers it, underneath the suit, Felicity is disappointed to see Oliver's black shirt instead of his chest and abs. After she removes it Oliver reaches underneath Felicity's hoodie, or his hoodie to be exact, "My turn."

Oliver lifts the hoodie over her head to reveal a small V-neck tee Oliver, Oliver gently kisses the exposed area of her V-neck, Felicity begins to pull up Oliver's black shirt, and Oliver scrunches his body together to allow the shirt to slide off. Felicity then places her hand on the scar over his left shoulder, the scar that brought her to him, she pushes against it with her right palm, Oliver sits himself up on his knees giving Felicity the chance to place her hands on his body. Felicity gently traces her fingers down Oliver's torso paying special attention when her fingers brush over a one of his many scars.

"You're the first person I've ever let do that."

"Not even Sara?"

Oliver shakes his head, "She was scared of them."

Felicity looks up into Oliver's pooling eyes, "I love them, all of them, they make you who you are."

Oliver as if subliminally reading Felicity's mind pulls up her V-neck and lays himself upon her, he starts by kissing behind her ears, along her jaw, then down her neck, then with one hand and unclasps her bra and take in her right nipple into his mouth while his left hand massages the other. Felicity archs off the couch releasing soft moan, Oliver switches breast and then kisses the path between them. He starts moving down her abdomen and Oliver is surprised to feel how hardened it is, Felicity lets out a slight giggle every once and awhile do to Oliver's lips and stubble ticking her midsection. He makes his way all the way down her sweatpants, without much motion he pulls the sweatpants off of her revealing her bright pink lace panties underneath. He continues his kisses around her hips and down both of her thighs, once he gets to the knees he makes his way back up until he reaches her panties once more.

Felicity looks down at him the full want in her eyes, she lifts her hips off the couch to allow Oliver to remove he panties and fling them onto the floor. He leaves small kisses around her until his mouth approaches its destination, he without much warning massages her clitoris with his tongue moving it in a counter clockwise motion.

"Oh shit," Felicity lets out, "What are you doing to me?"

Oliver just smiles and lowers his head a little more, he then inserts his touch inside her causing Felicity to nearly lose it on the couch, as Oliver works her with his tongue Felicity grabs two handfuls of Oliver's dirty blond hair.

"Fuck Oliver, God don't stop."

Oliver uses his right hand to massage Felicity's clit while he works his magic with his tongue, Felicity can fell the wonderful feeling of her muscles tightening as they prepare her body for orgasm.

"Oh God!" Felicity unleashes her orgasm, her body slightly convulsing from the pleasure ripping through her, while she comes back down, Oliver wastes no time to remove his pants and underwear leaving the both of them naked on the couch.

They both keep their eyes locked on each other both wanting the exact same thing, he lowers down upon her once more, Felicity grabs his cock guiding it in the right location, she still can't believe that after all this time it's happening, for once in her life a dream comes true. Oliver enters her slowly not wanting to cause her any discomfort.

Felicity releases a loud moan, "God it's better than I've ever dreamed."

Oliver smiles again and begins a slow and consistent pace wanting to take as much time with her as he can, Felicity also begins moving herself into him and the two form a hand in hand rhythm.

"Oliver! Please don't stop!"

As their rhythm continued it's as if both of them were trying desperately for become one person, one soul, as they continued they stare into each other's eyes realizing that this moment is the moment where everything will change between them. There will no longer be the empty want that traveled between them, they were now one and there is no going back.


	11. Final Masquerade

_Again, HUGE thanks to everyone who took a look at this piece recently. It had its highest numbers yet over the first weekend (I suspected that had something to do with the events of the last chapter…;)) We are now down to the last two songs on __**The Hunting Party**__, the next track is one of my favorites, it's titled __**Final Masquerade.**_

_In short it's one of Chester's relationship angst songs. But I really looked at a lot of things before I came up with the theme for this piece. Here are the lyrics…_

**Tearing me apart with words you wouldn't say,  
And suddenly tomorrow's a moment washed away.  
'Cause I don't have a reason, and you don't have the time,  
But we both keep on waiting for something we won't find.**

The light on the horizon was brighter yesterday,  
With shadows floating over, the scars begin to fade.  
We said it was forever but then it slipped away,  
Standing at the end of the final masquerade.

All I ever wanted, the secrets that you keep,  
All you've ever wanted, the truth I couldn't speak.  
'Cause I can't see forgiveness, and you can't see the crime,  
And we both keep on waiting for what we left behind.

_These are the three stanzas that I based my theme for this piece, I'm going to change it up a little this time, I'm first going to write the piece and then tell you the theme at the end._

**Final Masquerade**

_At A.R.G.U.S._

"His name is Lonnie," Harley Quinn begins, "He doesn't really have a surname because his father doesn't know his, and he most likely wouldn't use it anyway."

"His father is currently locked up at Arkham Asylum in Gotham," Waller adds.

Quinn giggles, "No one can contain his father, you should know that better than anyone Ms. Waller."

"Enough about him, I can worry about him another day, you need to tell us about your son."

Quinn shakes her head rapidly from side to side as if she were trying to avoid eating her vegetables, "Nah, ah, you promised."

"Ms. Quinn this is not the time."

"It's NEVER the time for you is it! You give me what I want, and I will give you what you want!"

"Ms. Quinn.."

"It's HARLEY QUINN, Waller!"

"You can't possibly think that were going to let you, your son, and especially your lover out of our sight, I'm sorry to tell you Ms. Quinn, Ms. Harley Quinn, but you chose this life and you now have to deal with the consequences, and if you don't help us your son, then we certainly don't have any further use for you."

"You wouldn't dare he'll find you and he'll kill you, your family, your friends, and anyone that has laid eyes on you, including all their families."

Waller unleashes what can only be described as a snarl, "Fine, I'll take my chances, throw her out."

"NO!" Harley Quinn shrieks and tears start to leave her face, "Why can't we just be left alone?!"

"Because you can't Harley Quinn, now you have two choices, tell us how to find your son and the machine, or never see him again."

Harley Quinn slams her head on the conference table and begins weeping uncontrollably on the desk, after a minute or so of weeping she props her head back up, "Okay I'm ready to tell!"

_An Island off the coast in the Pacific_

"I can't go on!" Thea shouts out, "I need rest."

"There isn't any time!" Malcolm Merlyn responds, "Now do it again!"

Thea gets into a fighting stance and prepares to defend herself against her biological father's onslaught, but before she can an array of hooded ninjas drop to the floor, "What's going on?" Thea screams.

"Go Thea, you can have your rest, they are not here to harm me, just to send a message."+

Thea without any more motivation runs off the ninja make no effort to stop her.

"She's lovely Malcolm."

Malcolm's head jolts upward, he expected with his recent failure that he would receive another warning, but he did not expect to see the Demon Head as well.

Ra's al Ghul walks through the wall of ninjas and enters into the ring that surrounds Merlyn, "You underestimated him." Al Ghul smiles.

"Yes, Demon Head, I have failed you again." Merlyn bows down to Al Ghul, hoping that his head will still be attached to his neck.

"Rise Malcolm, all though I despise it, I also understand it." Al Ghul circles around Merlyn, "I have failed for many centuries, the world is slowly dying, but along the way there was Greece, Rome, Constantinople, Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, all of those were successes, but for decades, we have failed, Metropolis, Gotham, Central City, all are standing, you Malcolm have had small successes, you destroyed a portion of Starling, you have been more successful in our quest than even myself."

"Thank you Demon Head," Merlyn responds with a slight calm to his voice.

"But that does not mean that work is not to be done, and don't take this moment as me showing you mercy, your failure was disastrous, you turned their vigilante into their sacrificial martyr, the city is repairing itself, all success you had with your previous efforts will be washed away if you do not act swiftly and properly. So I have a proposition for you, you destroy Starling, and I give you access to the pits and you will stand beside me, where you will lead the League into the other cities. If you fail, than all our options will be extinguished and we will unleash death upon it all, it is up to you Malcolm, to save humanity."

Malcolm releases a shuddering breath, "I joined the league to clean up humanity, not destroy it."

Al Ghul smiles, "It's one and the same Malcolm, one and the same."

_The Anarky Lair_

The Dark Hood looked upon the analytics of his machine. It is indeed true, Starling City's elite is indeed helping their city, massive donations have been made to help rebuild portions of The Glades and the Financial Sector that the riot had partially destroyed. His work has been completed, many will say that The Arrow's "sacrifice" had caused this movement, but he knew better, the sacrifice wouldn't have happened unless the people of Starling stood up for themselves and fought back. It was now time to leave Starling, his machine would monitor the city hold the city accountable, hostage even, and when the machine notified him that Starling City is starting to revert back to its normal self, he will return and wreak havoc upon it once more. For now he must concentrate on the task he was first hired to complete, he must kill the Arrow, and so now the machine must concentrate on a more important task...finding him.

_The Foundry_

As Roy was subject to do, he spent the entire night roaming the streets of Starling doing what Oliver asked him to do, to take care of the city in his absence. Felicity had failed to tell him yet that Oliver had returned, because she didn't want him walking in and finding the two of them naked on the couch. She was just glad that she took her comm out before running to Oliver, how embarrassing that could have been if Roy had heard _everything_ that had occurred in the foundry.

So for now it's just the two of them, as close together as humanly possible drifting in and out of sleep.

"I want this moment to last forever," Oliver sighed, "I just wish that life would just be simpler sometimes."

Felicity snuggles into Oliver's chest, "Your life is the way it is because you're unique, the immortals are jealous of you."

Oliver looks at Felicity, "Immortals?"

Felicity smiles while tracing her fingers of the scar that brought them together, "I know you're a big fan of the Odyssey, but there's a book before that Oliver, a better one in my opinion, the Odyssey is a little cliché, anyways, this book is called _The Illiad_."

"I remember hearing the title, I laughed in class because Homer wrote it and I kept making Simpsons jokes."

Felicity sighs, "God I'm so happy I met you later in life, so in The Illiad, Achilles keeps tempting the Gods, and a religious virgin that he has stolen, and raped basically, but never mind that she liked it and all, so it's not really rape then, okay, so, Achilles explains that the Gods punish us and put us mortals in peril because they're jealous of us. That the Gods are jealous of mortals because for them everyday could be their last, and so mortals do their best to enjoy the moments in their lives as much as possible, they settle disputes quicker because their life is too short, they try to be happy more often, that taking a risk and living an adventure is more enjoyable to a mortal because they have a time limit."

"And who are these Gods or immortals that are jealous of me?"

"Fate, Death, Failure, those things in life are immortal, they never die, they just move on to more victims, but you tempt those things, you mock them, you prove that good prevails because you prevail Oliver."

Oliver smiles, "And it proves that I shouldn't spend the rest of my life shielding people away, because life is too short. That's why I want you to be more than my EA, or my plus one…"

Felicity places her index finger over Oliver's lips, "Life is also too short to state the obvious Oliver, no matter what we do, the lives we've been blessed with will always place us in danger, are lives will never be simple Oliver."

Oliver removes Felicity's finger and pulls the back of her head down until their lips are together, as the kiss from earlier was hard, this one is soft and tender and loving, "Then let's not waste any more time."

Oliver flips Felicity over on the couch, and this time their lovemaking is slow and passionate, as he slowly thrusts her Felicity messages Oliver's back, the finally both cry with pleasure and release together. Tomorrow the chaos will begin again, but tonight for a brief moment there is peace.

_The Final Masquerade is completeness, that the journey is complete. There is a thought that there is completeness to life, but really life is just a set of obstacles and once you complete one a new one is added. But we continue to move on thinking that there is a finish line, but there isn't so the best thing to do is enjoy the moment for now, because you never know if the next obstacle will be your last._


End file.
